India, March 12 -- Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said the rules of the House apply to every lawmaker and nobody has special privileges to intervene out of turn.

Addressing the Opposition's key allegation that Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi is not allowed to speak, Birla said, "Some Honourable Members said that the Leader of the Opposition is prevented from speaking and is not given adequate opportunity to speak. I want to state from this august bench that whether it is the Leader of the House, the Leader of the Opposition, Ministers, or any other Member - all Honourable Members have the right to speak only while adhering to the procedure prescribed under the Rules of the House."

"Some Honourable Members believe that th...